When you do not have enough money or time, a well-worded post script can be your best friend. Whether you are the new doctor who doesn’t have a large database or the kind-hearted provider who accepts all those low-paying plans and really can’t afford the estimated 60 cents per unit cost of a fall postcard campaign, please consider adding a P.S. to emails and a red-ink P.S. to all patient-directed, routine postal pieces.

Patient excellence training should focus more on how to build a human connection while entering data into a terminal than how to use the latest and greatest diagnostic equipment. People over the age of 35 are either looking for life balance (in the case of a Millennial) or that respect he or she had in the professional arena before retirement (in the case of Baby Boomers.)

Is staff turnover holding you back? In some markets, healthcare personnel turnover is five times higher than unemployment. The average total turnover rate reported for healthcare employers in 2016 is 20.1%, up from 19.2% in 2015, according to Compdata Surveys’ national survey, Compensation Data Healthcare.

Are you planning on going to a conference this year? As Howard Schultz, chairman and chief executive officer of Starbucks, summarized, knowledge and skill are your keys to earning more. Professional conference season is upon us. Which ones are you paying for you and your employees to attend? No matter how dedicated and organized your practice may be, it’s impossible to internally train each and every staff member to the high level of excellence your patients demand. Thoughtfully motivating and engaging employees takes a concerted and systemic approach to learning and skills training.

I see the beginning of 2017 as fresh. A year of fresh possibilities. It is new and brimming with fresh beginnings, filled with hopes and dreams. If you are not feeling it, perhaps you are ensnared in the gray world of A, B, and C. This ABC is a continuous loop. You are not sure how you got there or how to get out.

Regardless of the outcome of the presidential race, there is much about practice management and leadership to be learned from mainstream media’s coverage of the two front-runners’ race to the White House.